Nikolic: Floods are strong reminder to people of risks

OBRENOVAC - Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said Saturday that the floods which hit Serbia recently should serve as a sharp reminder to the Serbian people but also as an example of “how the country and its people can get united in a situation.”

“A huge lesson, a huge experience ... A reminder for the future of the risks this can happen. Not so much a reminder to the government ... the government has done its job in the best possible way, especially the people who were here on the ground,” Nikolic said for Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) in Obrenovac, Belgrade’s municipality which hardest hit by the catastrophic floods.

The floods were a “huge warning to citizens,” Nikolic said, adding that people have been called through all public media to evacuate and leave the areas threatened by floods.

“We all begged them, urging them through all media to evacuate and do what they were asked to. Today they probably realize that if only there had been a little more cooperation, we would be here now with no human victims,” he said.

Material damages cannot be avoided, and they can be repaired, and human victims can be avoided, but cannot be repaired, Nikolic said.

“And that is all the difference and the lesson to learn after these floods,” Nikolic said.

The death toll in the flooded areas of Serbia is 33, including 13 deaths by drowning, but the number is still not final, Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said on Friday.

President Nikolic brought 15 vehicles with aid to Obrenovac and met with Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, Police Director Milorad Veljovic, Gendarmerie Commander Milenko Bozovic and Assistant Interior Minister and chief of the Emergency Situations Sector...